The W62 is the only nuclear warhead that has been publicly identified for elimination under the Bush administration’s secret nuclear stockpile reduction plan. By Hans M. Kristensen The While House announced earlier today that the President had “approved a significant reduction in the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile to take effect by the end of 2007.” […]
The National Biodefense Science Board (NBSB) began their inaugural meeting yesterday in Washington DC. The board, made up of 13 voting members and 21 non-voting ex officio representatives, was created as part of the 2006 Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act. The NBSB was chartered with the task of providing expert advice to the Department of […]
Several defense intelligence agencies will withhold unclassified information about their contracts from a new public database of government spending. The new database at USAspending.gov is intended to provide increased transparency regarding most government contracts. But when it comes to intelligence spending, there will actually be a net loss of public information because categories of intelligence […]
The U.S. intelligence community is reverting to old patterns of cold war secrecy, warned the former Chairman of the National Intelligence Council (NIC), to the detriment of U.S. intelligence. “The reality that I see is an Intelligence Community that is retreating into greater secrecy and old cultural habits, even in the short time since I […]
The National Archives says it is exploring new methods to accelerate the disclosure of records at Presidential libraries. Archivists “decided to undertake an in-house study in the spring of 2007 to review ways to achieve faster processing of Presidential records,” stated Emily Robison, acting director of the Clinton Presidential Library, in an October 2 declaration […]
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The spending bill just agreed by Congress over the weekend explicitly specifies zero funding for the Reliable Replacement Warhead, or RRW, and support for the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, but below the administration’s request. The RRW is a new nuclear weapon that the administration claims is essential to maintaining the integrity of the nuclear arsenal. […]
Senator Barack Obama praised the launch of a new government website yesterday that tracks federal contract awards. The new website — USAspending.gov — constitutes “an important milestone on the path to greater openness and transparency in the Federal Government,” he said. “I have been very troubled by the extent to which America has become a […]
Although last year’s budget for national intelligence was disclosed, current year spending remains classified, reflecting a judgment by the Bush Administration that its disclosure would cause serious damage to national security. So it is interesting to see that current intelligence spending is treated matter-of-factly in some other countries, and publicly disclosed without any fanfare at […]
Noteworthy new reports from the Congressional Research Service that have not been made available to the public online include the following (all pdf). “Africa Command: U.S. Strategic Interests and the Role of the U.S. Military in Africa,” updated December 7, 2007. “China’s Currency: Economic Issues and Options for U.S. Trade Policy,” updated November 29, 2007. […]
On 14 November, Peter Orszag, Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), testified before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee about the relative costs of plutonium reprocessing and direct disposal of used nuclear fuel. The oral testimony was quite brief and, unless otherwise noted, my comments are based primarily on the longer and presumably […]
Even if the videotapes of interrogation sessions that were destroyed by the Central Intelligence Agency showed nothing illegal or untoward, their destruction could still be a violation of the federal law which requires the preservation of official records, suggested Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) yesterday. Rep. Waxman asked Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein to […]